Theo woke up, started looking for his phone. He was groggy and confused, he knew it. It wasn’t at his bed side, charging, as it should have been.
So it hit him, maybe it was in Camille’s room. It was a strange feeling, the sensation of lying against her huge form, the way it felt in his memory. Sweet little(?) Gen lying next to them peacefully.
He opened the door to his room, walked into the hall. He heard Camille’s voice, talking to someone. He heard her praise for a response, and Theo heard nothing, realizing she was on the phone. He reached the living room, and saw her on the couch. Gen was grinning wide in front of her, sitting on the glass table with her feet dangling.
Gen had been right, Theo could see now. The furniture was oversized for her, too.
When she saw him she tapped Camille on the thigh, making her turn. “Oh, hey, he’s up!”
With a sinking feeling he couldn’t put a finger on, Theo asked, “Has anyone seen my phone?”
Gen jumped up and ran toward him. His first interaction of the day with a Big Girl, Theo jumped back reflexively. She leaned down. Way down.., to grab his hand gently, and pulled him forward, until he was in front of her. She put both hands on his back, pushing him toward Camille.
In front of her was even more difficult to slow this down. She did drop one hand, no doubt because one hand was enough to cover his back. “What?” He asked, looking straight up at her. She just laughed and pushed him forward. Theo almost tried to stop, then decided she might otherwise pick him and carry him.
Camille raised her arm to point a tiny screen at him over her shoulder.
A voice said, “My goodness, my baby look so little!”
That was when Theo recognized his own mother on the screen. Theo managed to suppress the scream that came to his throat.
“Oh, dear God no,” Theo said, walking around the sofa to the front. He reached for the phone, but at Camille’s seated eye level, it was out of reach.
Camille said, “Hold on,” to Theo. Then to his mother she said, “He had no idea, he was shocked when he saw Gen. And she’s barely started growing.”
His mom asked, “You gonna be safe there, Theo?
Everybody there is a giant. People act crazy out there away from home.”
“I’ll be fine, Mom.” Theo kept trying to reach for his phone to no avail. He started trying to climb onto the sofa. It wasn’t easy, with the cushion depriving him of any leverage.
“Don’t worry, Mrs. Rodriguez,” Camille said. “I promise we’ll keep him totally safe.” She made a cross over her heart when she said it. Then she reached down to grab Theo’s arm and effortlessly lift him onto the couch with the same hand.
“Sorry Theo, I picked it up when it rang and my fingers are too big. I took the call by accident.”
Theo nodded, “Okay.” He was on his knees next to her. When he got to his feet, standing on the couch Camille was sitting on, he was still looking up at her by over a foot.
“Your mother actually did the research, she knew about the Big Girls,” Camille said.
Then, when he looked at the phone and got ready to reach for it, she looked Theo in the eye and calmly extended it all the way out of reach with her other hand.
Gen started laughing behind him.
Theo didn’t see the humor in it and it ticked him off. He lost his mind for a moment. He said to Camille, “Oh, you b-“ and caught himself. She was looking right at him, amusement in her eyes. Followed by a pretty good facsimile of shock and offense.
Camille put her hand to her chest in exaggerated shock and said “Goodness, Theo!”
And Theo’s mom stepped in. “ Theodore!” She yelled. “You do not talk to a lady like that! Did I not raise you right? What’s wrong with you? Who you hanging around to make you think that’s okay?”
Camille tried to slow it down before it got out of hand, but it was way too late for Mama Rodriguez.
“I swore I raised you better than that and I tell you what... Camille, you and the other girl you have my direct permission to set him straight,” She said.
“Ma!” Theo yelled.
“Any way you have to!” She followed up, nodding to herself.
Camille said, “Okay but only if I have to! But don’t worry. I promise, he’s been nothing but a perfect gentleman since he arrived.”
Theo’s mom seemed to ignore it. “Young lady, I apologize, because I don’t even recognize that behavior from my son. Baby, If you don’t respect these women, who you gonna respect? My goodness you look like a three year old standing on that couch next to her, I don’t know what you thinking trying to talk to her or any woman like that. She could break you in half and I wouldn’t even blame her!”
Camille said, “Really, Mrs. Rodriguez I think you raised a fine son, he just got frustrated. But can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“What do you know about a girl he was in love with when he was thirteen?’”
Theo yelled, “Hang up, mom, I’m gonna call you back! Hang up! Just hang up!”
But she said, “Oh, what was her name? Zinny? Zanny!” Then she let out a big friendly laugh, “Oh my goodness he had such a crush on that gangly little girl...”
Theo fell on his back on the couch. Then he rolled over, jumped off the couch and walked to Gen.
She looked down and put her hands on his shoulders, then gave him an empathetic “Awww.” She hugged him, gently rocking him back and forth like a sad child as her shoulders still lurched with laughter.
His feet off the ground again, Theo asked, “Could you help me find a higher window to jump out of than the last time this impulse came up?”
Theo felt like today, two days before classes, was a good time to get acclimated to environments and people he was properly sized to. He’d hoped to learn more about the area, figure out the fun places to hang, maybe regain some swagger.
The knot in his neck muscles definitely put a krimp in his style. All that looking straight up at everyone for three days had a residual effect.
He found a coffee shop, sat down with a local magazine.
He sat there reading and people watching.
He thumbed through it to get a vibe on the rest of the planet. Olympia seemed to have a tighter reign on media than most places. It was home to a number of corporation headquarters, The biggest interplanetary university in the Galaxy, and home to a thriving large product seafood industry.
These oceans had a diverse genus of flavorful fish they called pisceshi. They grew to thirty or more feet and ran in large schools, Even better, they stayed fresh for weeks at room temperature. No bacteria harmful to mammals could seem to grow on the flesh, yet it was edible, in fact quite healthy, for humans. It was a dream. Of course, this made swimming in deep marine waters quite risky.
There was a race of water breathers, the Kuoley, that apparently loved the same waters. Keeping them from getting themselves eaten was an ongoing problem.
On campus, Kuoley students were often called Blues, or Powder Blues, because of the dominance of pale blue skin, reminiscent of a dolphin.
Under no circumstances, Theo found out, were you to call them “dolphins”, “fish” or the worst possible slur, “mermaids/men”. Since they actually had singular tails for propulsion, that was a common faux pas.
He saw a number of them around campus, and in the downtown area near campus. They wore self contained aquatic gear, and rode special scooters. They had no legs, but they had a semblance of arms and fingers. Their ability to speak core languages was limited, but their translators worked well enough.
What surprised Theo is that he saw as many of them as there were Atlasians in this part of town and the campus. Admittedly, the Kuoley population was three times that of Atlasians on planet, but considering the prep work required to allow them to move around on land... Why were the giants more reluctant to be out and about?
Particularly females. He was gathering that Atlasian women were a minority within a minority here. Which was strange, since the University had significantly more female students than males.
When the server came to hand him the check, he asked her,
“Do the Atlasians come here every now and then?”
She said, “Sure. Actually just had two guys in here earlier, with a group of Coreys.”
“Coreys?”
“People from the core. No offense.”
It was a goofy name, but he wasn’t exactly offended. “So you said there were guys... how often do you get girls in here?”
The barista made a face. She was clearly a student, his age or a few years older. There was a subtext he couldn’t place. She answered, “No. our kitchen is not set up for that.”
“Ah,” he said. “Makes perfect sense.” It would probably be an unnecessary expense to have a second set of plates, an extra large fridge, storage space, chairs.
An Atlasian male would be able to squeak by, he’d just be a little cramped. A female? The doors weren’t even big enough to squeeze through for them.
Most expensive beings in the galaxy. Yep.
“You’re new. You just wandering around trying to meet Big Girls? They got a whole village.”
“No, I was just curious.” Theo noted her name was Siobhan.
“Check the bars later. A few have Atlasian Girls for bouncers.” She turned to walk away. “If that’s what you’re into.”
Theo was intrigued by the tension he had stumbled upon. Siobhan was fairly pretty, but less exotic. She was simply white, with blonde hair and a slim figure.
Camille was blonde, Asian, curvy, athletic, and fifteen feet tall. That was certainly a lot of intriguing boxes to check all at once.
The hostility was more than he would’ve expected. He felt like it could b a bad idea, but he couldn’t pass up the chance to chat up the barista a bit more.
He was paying his tab, and asked, “Siobhan, what’s your perception of Atlasian women?”
That got a big “Ha!” out of her. Suddenly she was interested in talking. “Just the attitude is a bit much. They really look at it like their size makes them better. Then some of you guys get into that,” She said, looking Theo up and down, “Because they come off like they’re chill and down for whatever. But they’ll play games with y’all all day, send you home frustrated because why not?”
“Okay. So what about the men?”
She shrugged noncommitaly. “I mean, they look great but they ain’t all there. Somehow.” Siobhan made a face. “They’re like giant kids to me. I don’t know. I’m not into it. Plus it’s pretty much illegal. You lose your passports, can’t travel if you get pregnant.”
“Illegal? Wait, illegal how?” That part was kind of new. He understood their genes were treated like a disease, but getting pregnant, illegal? How was that justified?
“The genes are crazy dominant. So you get pregnant, your child is pretty much genetically all Atlasian. The boys will be almost as big as the full bloods, and the half Atlasian girls are supposedly even bigger than the full-blooded ones somehow, and what’s crazier? Every generation of big girls is bigger than the last one. They do not want that. So yeah, they will deport you and your child, thirteen, fourteen later when they find out.”
It still seemed extreme, and unjustifiable, to Theo. It was probably his sensibilities as an American. How could you tell people who they could procreate with if biology was still cool with it?
He tucked his awareness of that hostility away for later use. He had to adapt to these attitudes surrounding beings he only just found out existed days ago. There were definitely tensions he didn’t understand yet.
He made sure to overtip Siobhan, so he could ask her on more question on the way out.
“What does that thing they say mean? Geebie geebie, or something like that?”
“Bee Gee, Gee Bee,” Siobhan corrected. And when she said it, it felt like he already knew the answer clear as day.
Siobhan said, “It means ‘Big. Girls. Get. Bigger.’”
Giantess World
Author's Chapter Notes:
Theo takes an afternoon stroll to check out the campus.
Chapter End Notes:
Wavering on what happens next….But a big introduction is coming, one way or another.